Title: A room with no view
by Tamsin from West Sussex | in writing, fiction
I sat in the warm comforting psychiatrist's office for the fourth time in one week, waiting for Dr. Greenberg to come back in the room. Dr. Greenberg is a lovely and kind lady who took up being a Psychiatrist after her husband died when she was thirty. He was in a car crash and she was left with no job and two children, so she did the obvious and trained to do a well paying job. When she arrived back in the room she brought a young doctor in with her from the hospital. I'd spoken to him before that week but I didn't think anything of it. I just assumed Dr. Greenberg was off sick and he was standing in for her. But this time he was wearing his white surgeons coat and looked very stern and not the slightest bit jolly like he did the week before. 'Rosalind, I'm Dr. Cameron, as you already know. I've come to talk to you about our little meeting last week' he said, he went on to say 'I have reason to believe that you are mentally unstable and after talking it over with Dr. Greenberg and some of my colleagues at the hospital, we have decided it would be best that you go and stay at Tillridge lodge'. I didn't know what to say. That was the place that they sent all the crazy people. He just stood there with no emotion on his face. Nothing about what he was doing suggested he had any sympathy for me what so better. Dr. Greenberg wasn't much better, though at least I could see she felt a little guilty. 'That's the mental institute!' I shouted at them. Fine I admit I could act a little obsessive sometimes but nothing as extreme as some of the people there. Tillridge Lodge was filled with people with the mental age of a five year old, Anorexics, Addicts and people who were just plain insane. I couldn't bare the anger that was building up inside of me. I just had to let it go. 'Why the hell are you sending me there? I can't bare the idea of spending time with people like that. I'm not crazy, in fact being sent there is the thing that will send me crazy. How dare you even think that I'm as unstable as the people they send in there? I'll admit I can get a little obsessive maybe even a little power mad but only the same amount as a normal woman, and can you blame me with people saying outrageous things like you just have.' I yelled and yelled until I could yell anymore. Then Dr. Cameron butted in 'Now, Now calm yourself Rosalind this is the exact kind of behaviour I am talking about. But don't worry we'll have you calmed down once you've arrived at Tillridge. It'll be alright Rosalind.' He tried saying this as though he cared but I knew full well that he couldn't care any less than he did. But there was nothing I could do. He had got other doctors agreeing with him and by then all the forms were signed without my consent. So I just huffed 'Ros! If you don't mind' and then I turned away like a stroppy small child. I'll admit that defiantly wasn't helping but hey there was nothing I could do so I figured I may as well made the most of it.
In the morning I woke up with my bags already packed for me by some nurse from Tillridge named Orlando. He woke me after packing my back and told me to get dressed and go down to the Taxi which was waiting for me downstairs. At which point I told him to get lost, how patronising could he be? Even if I was crazy I think I would have been perfectly capable of packing my own bags and ordering my own taxi, though I probably wouldn't have because I shouldn't have been going in the first place. But none the less I got up and found some clothes to put on. Orlando just stood and watched. 'Are you going to leave the room or not?' I asked him, glaring straight at him.
'I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to leave the room' He replied smiling politely as if to say sorry but oh well. 'Well for god sake could you at least turn around so I can get dressed?' I asked. And so he did as he was told and turned away. As I undressed I felt as though I was being watched though I could see Orlando at all times facing the wall. So I got dressed quickly and awkwardly so he didn't see anything. 'Okay let's go,' I said reluctantly. Orlando reached down for the bag but I quickly grabbed it before he could pick it up. He turned to look at me and I glared and so he walked out the door quickly and walked to the taxi.
On the way to Tillridge I began to feel scared and worried. 'Are you okay?' Orlando asked politely. I smiled and nodded but then a few seconds later just broke down. 'Do you know when I'm getting out? I only spoke to Dr. Cameron once and then all of a sudden all this was happening and I just don't know what to do. All my family are living in Australia and I don't know what to do or who to turn to.' I cried. Orlando just looked at me like a loon, which I suppose he just assumed I was and hugged me until I stopped crying.
When we arrived at Tillridge Lodge the taxi dropped us off outside these giant black steel gates, which had Tillridge Lodge going across the top of them. Orlando walked over to a small box on the wall and told them to let us in. the gates opened automatically and inside was a giant mansion with acres and acres of land surrounding it. I figured it wasn't going to be so bad after all. That was until we walked inside the building and I saw all the other patients. There were people walking around who looked like they hadn't eaten in years, other people were walking along talking to themselves and others were just walking around looking like they had no clue what was going on. I was in a mental asylum.
My insperation for this story was Elizabeth wurtzels book More, Now, Again and the film Girl Interrupted
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